How a Barrister Runs a Multi-Area Practice and Stays on Top of It

Simon Ridding built a system to get through more work, with less stress, and no support staff

A practice built for complexity

Simon Ridding has been a barrister for two years, having spent the first chapter of his career working as a solicitor in class action litigation. The move to the bar opened up his practice considerably, and he now works across data protection, AI, human rights, immigration, judicial review, and general litigation. It’s the kind of practice that suits someone who likes complexity and range, but it’s also the kind of practice that generates an enormous volume of written work.

Simon works solo, and with no support staff and no colleagues to share the load, it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage that volume and variety of work. He has ADHD, and like many people who share that experience, generic organisation systems had never quite clicked.

Over time, that pressure was starting to build. For example, particulars of claim that should have been turned around in weeks were taking a lot longer. Between court days and preparation, there simply wasn’t time, or mental energy, left to draft. 

Simon was putting in 80 to 100 hours a week yet still feeling behind, and he knew something needed to change. 

The way through

Simon has never considered leaving the profession despite the pressure and workload that comes with it. He says the work itself is incredible, but he couldn’t accept the idea that this level of stress was simply the cost of doing it. 

He had tried one alternative before finding Clio, which was pushed by colleagues in Chambers, a legal AI tool that handled research queries but lacked the case management and research capabilities he actually needed. He was still paying for it when a colleague mentioned Clio on LinkedIn.

Before reaching out, Simon did his homework. His situation was specific since he was a self-employed barrister rather than being part of a law firm, so he needed to know whether Clio’s platform could work for someone in his position. Once satisfied it could, he got in touch.

Built for the job

Simon had thought carefully about data protection before committing to Clio. Seeing the platform trusted by large law firms around the world, as well as colleagues at the bar, gave him confidence in its security. Clio’s acquisition of vLex gave him the final reassurance he needed.

He signed up, and the onboarding, which Simon described as “really good” and built on listening to what he needed, confirmed he had made the right call. 

What Simon built from there was a deliberate workflow, with Clio Work sitting at the centre of it. He uses other tools alongside it, but he considers Clio the central hub for organising his working week.

“It’s designed for legal professionals,” Simon says. He adds that he trusts the results of Clio because it finds and applies relevant law aligned to the case he’s working on. 

On his terms, at his pace

It took about six weeks to find a rhythm. Simon got his cases set up, worked out how he wanted to approach things, and gradually the pace of the work changed. Every new matter now gets the same treatment from the moment Simon takes it on. Everything is organised from the outset so when he needs something, he can find it immediately, and when there’s a task to do, it gets done a lot quicker.

He can also get instant summaries as a primer rather than reading through everything manually, ask specific questions directly from within a case, and create templates for popular documents rather than starting from a blank page. Tasks that used to take the better part of a day now only take a fraction of that time.

One of the less obvious benefits Simon describes is the effect Clio has had on procrastination. When the task in front of him felt like a 10-hour undertaking, the temptation to put it off until the last possible moment was almost irresistible. Now that the same task takes a lot less time, the mental barrier dissolves. 

He can take on more when he wants to, and stop when he wants to.

Simon is now working 60 to 70 hours a week rather than 80 to 100, and he says the hours he puts in are increasingly a matter of choice rather than necessity. He even finds himself squeezing in extra work at the end of the day, not because he has to, but because it has become easy enough to want to.

Room to breathe

Simon is still building out the full picture, returning to older matters and adding them in as he goes. He is in no rush. The practice is already running the way he wants it to. The difference between now and a year ago means he has the mental energy to think about what comes next rather than just trying to keep pace with what is in front of him.

A solo practice will always be demanding, but the difference now is that Simon gets to set the pace instead of chasing it. And for a barrister working alone across multiple different practice areas, this is what getting it right looks like.